The DfE is focussing on driving up school attendance, partly in the face of the recent Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) report based on polling by YouGov which found that nearly three in ten parents (28%) surveyed agree that the pandemic has shown it is not essential for children to attend school every day. Less than 3 in 4 (70%) of parents are confident their child’s needs are being met at school, with confidence dropping to 61% among those with a child in secondary school.
The DfE states that Attendance hubs will more than double to support 1,000 more schools and £15 million investment to expand the attendance mentor pilot programme:
More than one million children and young people will be supported into regular education as part of a major expansion of the attendance hubs, which provide a range of tailored support to families and pupils to boost time in school.
There will be 18 new attendance hubs across 6 regions, bringing the total to 32 and will see nearly 2,000 schools helped to tackle persistent absence.
DfE
Alongside this, the DfE has written to governors and trustees asking them to help drive up attendance – you can read the letter from Damian Hinds, Minister for Schools, here.
dsga.org.uk 